"In my many years of grant writing, I have never seen or engaged in anything like this before. To be trusted with this [grantmaking] fund, and to see us all working together to meet each other's needs with it, honoring each other's work, and make funding decisions in a way that truly does not feel competitive or harmful... I wish more organizations adopted this model of grantmaking."
- 2024 Shared Gifting Circle retreat participant
History & Key Learnings
The History of Our Cohorts
In 2020, the Grassroots Fund set out to create two new funds within the organization, in concert with other partners: one focused on building power amongst BIPOC-led, New England-based food systems organizers, and the other focused on engaging Boston-based community organizers more deeply in climate resilience efforts.
The funds would establish two new multi-year Shared Learning & Shared Gifting opportunities for 20+ food systems & climate organizations in New England: The Food Systems Resilience Fund Cohort and the Community-Led Climate Resilience in Boston Cohort, respectively.
Grassroots Fund continues to support climate resilience & food systems organizers across New England through our Cohort programs, with an emphasis on supporting BIPOC led + BIPOC serving organizations who have limited access to monetary resources – without strict requirements on organizational tax status. For a more detailed overview of our vision for our Cohorts, see the attached Visioning Statements below:
2025 Community-Led Climate Resilience in Boston Cohort Visioning Statement 2025 Food Systems Resilience Fund Cohort Visioning Statement
Key Learnings from our Cohorts
Grassroots Fund seeks to effectively create participatory grantmaking spaces that lean away from competition and scarcity-mindset amongst participatory grantmakers.
We know that traditional grantmaking cycles can cause harm, and by engaging in active feedback loops with participants and facilitating participatory grantmaking processes that are based and build upon relationships and trust, we work to proactively prevent, minimize, and – when needed – address harm caused through the Cohorts’ grantmaking processes.
Our approach to organizing these Cohorts is consistently evaluated and evolved with close direction by participant organizers, to be more aligned not only with the Grassroots Fund Guiding Practices, but also with the expressed desires, needs, and priorities of the organizers the Cohorts engage.
We continue to amend and co-create this model with participating organizers who are already centering equity in their work.
Since first engaging the Cohorts in 2020, we have learned:
Relationship building can be used as a tool for creating more equitable participatory grantmaking processes. This includes trust-building between decision makers and between participants & funders.
In order to engage in more equity-driven work, participatory grantmaking must evolve into directly community-led and grassroots-led grantmaking. Decision-making power must be held within the communities in which the Fund is intended to impact.
Setting values-informed Funding Priorities is a strategy that can be used to align Shared Gifting Circle participants. In our experience, identifying overlapping Values and desired Funding Priorities for participants’ Cohort-directed funds have acted as “North Stars” the day of decision-making.
The opportunity for grassroots organizers to convene in a supportive space is transformational on its own. Independent collaborations and skill shares among participants have come into fruition as a result of community convenings, and the impact of this program extends far beyond its 12-month Cohort model.
Grassroots organizers have an urgent need for multi-year funding opportunities like these. Grants from these Cohorts come without restrictions and are made available to participant organizations, without requiring a 501(c)3 tax status.
Community-Led Climate Resilience in Boston Cohort
The Community-Led Climate Resilience in Boston Cohort was founded in partnership with the Barr Foundation in 2020. At the time, the Cohort’s purpose was to pilot the Shared Gifting Circle grantmaking method while supporting developing climate resilience efforts in Greater Boston.
While participatory grantmaking continues to be at the heart of this Cohort, it has become a program where participants come as experienced community organizers with a desire to embed climate resilience into their organizing work, but leave as organizers with the tangible knowledge, skills, and practical experience to be successful doing so.
Through workshops, a participatory grantmaking experience, discussions and multi-year engagement with a peer-supported network of like minded organizations who all have a similar goal of connecting their work to climate change, the Cohort liasons community leaders into the climate sphere.
List of Cohort Participants
Food Systems Resilience Fund Cohort
The central purpose of the Food Systems Resilience Fund (FSRF) Cohort at Grassroots Fund is to strengthen the resilience of our region’s food systems, with an emphasis on supporting the work of BIPOC-led organizers.
We do this by facilitating the building of power amongst New England-based food systems organizers through engagement in online and in-person convenings, workshops, and an annual relationship-based participatory grantmaking experience, where participants collectively distribute a Cohort-directed grant pool amongst each other.
" One of the biggest impacts of this Cohort is the fact that Grassroots Fund trusts us, as community organizers, to know exactly what our communities need -- I haven't seen anything like it. This trust is so gratifying. It gives me hope for a future of our food systems work, and is transformational for our organization long-term. Participating in this Cohort gives us a feeling of freedom and hope.
- 2024 FSRF Participant
List of 2023 Cohort Alumni
List of 2024 Cohort Participants
Windham Community Food Network
Mount Washington Valley Farmer’s Market
White River Land Collaborative
New Hampshire Community Seafood
Grantee Highlight
Neighbors United for a Better East Boston (NUBE)
This was organized in preparation for the Cohort's June 2024 community convening, in response to NUBE's desire to showcase their work to their peers and to draw deeper connections amongst each other's advocacy work & the key environmental issues each other are facing.
How to Stay Connected
While these cohorts are no longer an open-call for grant applications, we appreciate your interest in our Cohort programs, and hope you will look out for additional ways to be involved with Grassroots Fund in the future. We also continue to fund food systems and climate resilience work through our other grant programs.
Sign Up for our Newsletter Explore All Grant Programs
For general questions about our Cohorts, or to learn how to best support this work, contact Grants Program Manager Naja Grasty.